Advanced Degrees at BCG

Welcome to BCG for advanced-degree candidates (ADCs), where you will find information about campus events, recruiting contacts, and our application procedures.

Do you have an advanced degree—a PhD, a JD, or an MD—and an interest in a business career? Then you should consider applying to BCG. With your intellectual curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving skills, you will be able to make valuable contributions to client projects from day one. At BCG, you will be given unlimited opportunities to continuously expand your areas of knowledge, enhance your skills, and advance your career in a way and at a pace unmatched by most other companies.

As the Recruiting team for ADCs in North America, we are thrilled that you are interested in strategy consulting—and specifically in BCG. We think you will find that BCG has a great deal to offer you, both as a career choice and a life experience.

Ryan Bennett
Partner
NAMR ADC Recruiting Lead

Diverse Viewpoints Create Value

Conventional approaches rarely get our clients where they need to be. We have seen many times how creative thinking and out-of-the-box solutions for our clients' toughest business problems require a combination of different viewpoints, angles, and perspectives.

As a consultant with an advanced degree, you will enrich project teams with your own fresh and distinct perspective, therefore providing clients with thoughtful approaches of the highest caliber and solutions tailored to their organization and challenges.

For example, we often find ourselves working for clients whose business is closely linked to the natural sciences. Having a real understanding of the underlying science helps us execute the right analysis and propose viable solutions, while also establishing our credibility with the client.

There is no doubt that a chemist's understanding of the value chain in a health care concern is different from that of a business major; that a physicist looks at the automotive industry from his own angle; or that a mathematician has a particularly sound approach to risk-assessment topics.

At BCG we realize that social sciences have become more important than ever before in today's era of globalization. Who could better understand what it takes to create and maintain competitive advantage for a global company than a social scientist? For a company that has decided to enter a new market, a sociologist can deliver insights that nobody else is able to provide.

The turnaround of an entire company culture is a process that requires extensive expertise in psychology and, at times, anthropology. JDs who possess strong communication and interpersonal skills can also use their critical thinking to approach a problem they may have studied in corporate law from inside the boardroom.

At BCG you can choose to surprise those around you—and maybe even yourself.

For BCG, a Fresh Perspective and Valuable Skills

We find that candidates who have spent significant time in academia or working in the scientific or health care fields, as well as many JDs, have reached a particularly high level of proficiency in competencies and skills that are critical to consulting—such as problem solving and analysis.

Thus, compared with others just starting at BCG, you will embark on your career with a deeper understanding of the major pillars of the consulting process:

Thinking through complex problems

Finding new analytical approaches to answering questions for which no standard solution exists

Formulating and testing hypotheses

Thinking through your assumptions in a structured way

Generating insights from your analysis and distilling recommendations

For You, a Unique Growth Opportunity

At BCG, you will work with people who possess incredibly diverse backgrounds, which means that you will have unparalleled opportunities for personal and professional growth. You will also have the opportunity to make a positive impact on multiple clients across many industries and business functions.

In all projects, you will have the chance to brainstorm with top-notch executives, as well as with the highly talented members of your BCG teams. At the same time you will enhance your intellectual leadership and ability to credibly communicate with and inspire audiences in fields outside your area of specialization. Through this experience, working at BCG will build bridges for you and open up additional paths, no matter where your interests guide you.

Furthermore, we encourage you to grow beyond your area of expertise. Our on-the-job apprenticeship model, as well as our extensive training and mentorship programs, will help you transition from the academic or scientific environment into the consulting world. We tailor training programs for consultants without a business background to provide a strong foundation for professional strategy consulting.

In addition, the BCG culture of collaboration and our open-door policy mean that you will always have someone to talk with about your project, the BCG culture and work dynamic, or your experience at BCG.

At BCG, there is no single path to success. If you are interested in leveraging your skills and growing personally and professionally in a global, fast-paced, team-oriented environment, BCG is the right place for you.

Together, Expertise and Impact

BCG has been recruiting advanced-degree candidates for over a decade, and as we expand our reach to recruit the top talent, we will continue to recruit more. Globally, 30 percent of our hires hold advanced degrees, and there are nearly 100 partners with advanced degrees working across a range of practices and industries. In addition, these partners hold leadership positions within the firm, including our CEO.

As an advanced-degree candidate you have already developed a specific set of skills and expertise. At BCG you can choose to focus on the industry closest to your field of study, or be exposed to a completely new industry. BCG’s broad portfolio of client work provides the ideal stage for exploring new fields and finding ways to leverage your analytical skills and topic expertise.

We have a supportive model for your development that gives you the ability to develop your career and discover where your true passions lie. For instance, BCG's diverse culture gives MDs who may want to focus on health care, or the physicist who may want to experience a new industry like consumer goods the same opportunities to receive mentorship, training, and development—and to impact their client.

BCG gives me opportunities that I would have never have had in the legal profession.

DavidJD/MBA, Project Leader, New Jersey

A Personal Story

A significant part of my BCG experience has been working the diverse members of the consulting staff. The culture at BCG is entrepreneurial, challenging, and fun. BCG gives me opportunities that I would have never have had in the legal profession. I'm to constantly learning on various client projects, from the outset of my career had interactions with senior members of BCG and our client teams, and I have held leadership roles in my local office. I have increasingly played an active role in recruiting which lets me meet many interesting people and help shape the future of the BCG New Jersey.

Background

David Gorelik is a project leader in the New Jersey office of The Boston Consulting Group. Prior to BCG, David worked as a litigation attorney in Philadelphia serving major corporations in class action and mass tort disputes. David holds an MBA with distinction from New York University where he was a Stern scholar, William R Salomon scholarship recipient and Beta Gamma Sigma Alumni Medallion Award recipient. He also earned a BSE in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from the Temple University Beasley School of Law.

There are no boring or mundane business problems at BCG, and, in that sense, we are truly blessed to have such a strategic profession.

JeffJD, Partner and Managing Director, Los Angeles

A Personal Story

Coming from the legal profession, I find that the great joy and challenge of consulting is that the answers are never in a book or somewhere else online. Each business problem we address is, by definition, extremely challenging and, by the nature of the industry and company context, distinctive. The excitement that I feel from continually having the opportunity to tackle the most challenging problems in global business still enriches every day.

Knowing that the solution set will come only from working closely with BCG and client team members to discover the answer together and that the solutions cannot be found in a textbook or article really adds to the mental challenge.

Background

Jeff Hill joined The Boston Consulting Group in 2000 and is a partner in the Los Angeles office. Jeff is the managing partner of BCG's Los Angeles office and the leader of BCG's West Coast marketing sales and pricing practice area. Jeff is also a core member of BCG's automotive practice area with significant experience in automotive sales, marketing, pricing, product strategy and distribution. Jeff graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with degrees in economics and public policy. He then received his juris doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Consulting combines intellectual and professional challenge with a practical punch through the impact we have on our client’s business

GavinPhD, Consultant, Toronto

A Personal Story

After eight years of study, I wanted a job that would challenge me, provide intensive development opportunities at the outset of my career, and allow me to have a tangible impact through my work. With the opportunity to work with clients in different locations, business sectors and functional areas, management consulting combines intellectual and professional challenge with a practical punch through the impact we have on our client’s business – exactly the combination I was looking for.
I knew that BCG was the right choice for me because of the company’s strong focus on development opportunities, from online tutorials, to on-the-job skills building and mentoring as well as local, European and even global training programmes. Of all the firms I considered, BCG promised to be the most conducive to my personal and intellectual growth, a value reflected not only in the firms training programmes but in all the people I met when I applied and joined.

Background

Gavin joined BCG London's office after completing a Master’s and PhD in History at the University of Cambridge, which included research in London, Paris and Berlin. He received his Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto, working in student services and marketing during summers off. He was head of the London chapter of Canada25, leading events and publications on public policy issues. Gavin enjoys jogging, cooking, choral singing and trying to improve his French and German abilities.

I use the skills I gained in the research lab every day to impact our clients in the boardroom.

KimPhD, Senior Partner and Managing Director, New York

A Personal Story

What I've found at BCG is a place where I can have significant impact on my clients' businesses. They depend on us to deliver creative and implementable solutions to their toughest problems. We are strategic advisors that help create real change and bring lasting effects even after the case has ended. My time in BCG New York provided a range of opportunities to try new things. Now that I’ve joined the leadership team in BCG New Jersey, I have the opportunity to continually grow and building on my experiences to continually impact our clients.

Background

Kim co-leads the Global Research & Development topic within BCG’s health care practice. She is also a member of the operations and information technology practice areas. Kim’s clients are primarily focused in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Before joining BCG, Kim received her BS in Biology from Cornell University, her MS in Physiology from Texas A&M University and her PhD in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology from Harvard University.
In her leisure time, Kim enjoys farming and construction. She and her husband operate a vineyard and winery in the Hudson Valley.

Every case brings a unique set of challenges—and we respond by developing unique solutions.

RobertMD, Principal, Boston

A Personal Story

People are often surprised that I chose to come to BCG after graduating from medical school. For me, however, BCG was an obvious choice. Rather than developing deep expertise in a narrow field within medicine, I wanted to build the management skills and business acumen that, combined with my medical and scientific background, could be a platform for success in a wide variety of applications. BCG offered the opportunity do exactly these things, while working alongside a fantastic group of colleagues and taking on a variety of intellectual challenges.

BCG has delivered on that promise and more. We are fortunate to work with world-leading clients on their biggest and most difficult questions. While we take advantage of BCG's long history of strategic insight and deep pool of experience, every case brings a unique set of challenges—and we respond by developing unique solutions.

Background

Robert is a Principal in the San Francisco office and a core member of the Health Care Practice. Prior to joining BCG, Robert earned his MD degree from Duke University with AOA honors. He also holds a BS summa cum laude in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from Yale University and has participated in a variety of clinical and basic science research projects.